The Fine Print

So Google Chrome is todays big thing, I have to admit shortly after getting into work this morning I had it installed and was happily browsing away with it to see what it was like.

It’s a beta, its a little buggy, but generally neat.

However, this afternoon a friend pointed me towards this post, and once more another product that cannot be used in a corporate environment has been let loose.  I’ve worked in CIO departments in the past that have had to chase down rogue installations of software that has surrendered IPR, and its a real pain.  Users love it (for the right usability reasons), companies and lawyers don’t (for the right legal reasons).

No doubt this kind of activity will be taking place again, we could even call it project remove google desktop search part 2.

I don’t want to re-iterate the previously mentioned post too much, but its safe to say I will not be using the browser to submit any kind of content to any website i.e. webmail, sharepoint or this blog.  I would strongly advise against it if any client we’re to show interest in adopting Chrome.

It’s a shame, on first impressions, I quite liked where it may have been going.

[Update #1 03-Sep-08] Seems there are more posts on this on the Register and by Charles Stross (author of some really good sci fi I have been addicted to recently) 

you may also have some trouble getting to the original post due to the amount of people viewing it now

oh yeah, and if you have installed it, take a look at this,  Typing the following into the address bar has some quite interesting pages hidden away:

• about:stats
• about:dns
• about:network
• about:cache
• about:version
• about:histograms
• about:plugins
• about:memory

[Update #2 04-Sept-08] and also here, google has now changed the EULA, however, (as mentioned at the end of this post) that doesnt necessarily remove the various little reporting aspects of the browser that more sensible people will want to avoid, although this post suggests otherwise.

Maybe things could work out for the browser yet, although I’d still like to point you towards Dave’s comments, he’s a little more critical and I haven’t really taken to time to look into any of the things he’s mentioned, but you may want to.

I’m also now aware of at least one large international company that has issued a complete ban on “chrome” being isntalled on any of their systems or being used by any of their employees.

Oh, and I’ve just been informed that:

• about:internets

Is an interesting little easteregg.